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Israel revealed on Thursday it has "activated" clans of Palestinians as part of its war in Gaza, confirming suspicions it is working with anti-Hamas groups inside the enclave.
A former Israeli minister accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of approving the transfer of large quantities of arms to organised crime families in Gaza. In a video posted online late on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu said the government made the move to "activate" local clans on the advice of “security officials" to save the lives of Israeli soldiers.
One group suspected of having Israel's backing, known as the Yasser Abu Shabab Popular Forces, has urged displaced Palestinians to return to their homes in eastern Rafah, where it claims they will be protected.
Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the opposition Yisrael Beiteinu party, had alleged Israeli links to gangs in an interview with the Kan Bet radio station and suggested the weapons transfer was approved without having gone through the proper channels.
"The head of the Shin Bet knows, I'm not sure the Chief of Staff knows," he said. "We're talking about the equivalent of ISIS in Gaza. No one can guarantee that these weapons will not be aimed at Israel. We have no way of monitoring or tracking it."
An earlier statement by the Prime Minister's office did not deny the accusation and said: “Israel is acting to defeat Hamas in various ways upon the recommendation of the heads of the security establishment.”
The revelation has sent shockwaves throughout Israel, with many questioning why Mr Netanyahu would empower dangerous groups on the country’s border. Critics say it is further evidence that Israel is helping criminals disrupt aid distribution in Gaza.
Israel has a record of empowering groups potentially dangerous to its security to weaken major enemies. In the early 1980s, it supplied ammunition to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War.
Mr Lieberman's claims follow a post on social media on Wednesday by the Yasser Abu Shabab Popular Forces that urged displaced Palestinians to return to an Israeli-occupied area in southern Gaza, claiming they will be safe. But accounts from Gaza suggest the group is regarded less as a source of safety than a dangerous experiment, one that many say is backed, if not engineered, by Israel.
The group's leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, is viewed with suspicion and reportedly commands about 75 armed people, many of whom have criminal records for drug trafficking and murder. His group operates outside the framework of any recognised Palestinian authority and is accused of trying to create an alternative government model amid the leadership vacuum created by the war and the weakening of Hamas.
Footage recently posted online shows the growing presence of such militias in areas of southern Gaza controlled by the Israeli military, Haaretz reported on Thursday.
“The emergence of such groups reflects Israel’s refusal to assume its responsibilities as an occupying power, alongside the international community’s unwillingness to intervene," Abdullah Sharshara, a Palestinian legal and social affairs researcher, told The National. "In this vacuum, Israel is testing scenarios that empower local collaborators to manage civilians in its place.”
Mr Sharshara said the Abu Shabab group had been conducting raids since February, disarming residents and dismantling infrastructure in eastern areas of Rafah. Now it is claiming to offer "protection" to civilians willing to return, while effectively operating under the watch of Israeli drones and military co-ordination, he added.
Munther Al Hayek, a spokesman for the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the operations of such groups were a betrayal of the national cause.
"These gangs have no connection whatsoever to the legitimate Palestinian leadership," he told The National. “They operate under the cover of Israeli surveillance and commit actions that go against our traditions and values. Their only goal is to fragment society, spread lawlessness, and promote normalisation with the occupation."
His warning comes amid growing concern that Israel is attempting to create a “buffer zone” in eastern Rafah – a demilitarised and locally controlled area that will allow it to shift legal and humanitarian responsibility on to proxy groups while consolidating its own security interests.
The sudden rise of the Abu Shabab group, lacking any backing from the recognised Palestinian leadership and tainted by accusations of criminality, is widely seen as an Israeli experiment in government by proxy. Ordinary Gazans told The National that they view such groups, not as a protective force, but as collaborators offering a false promise of return in exchange for political and social submission.
“Abu Shabab and others like him are clear collaborators with the occupation,” said Musab Hijazi, who was displaced from eastern Rafah and now lives in a tent in the coastal Al Mawasi area. “They’re trying to trick people with aid and promises of safety, but what they really want is to normalise the occupation and turn us into informants.
“I’d rather stay in a tent for the rest of my life than go back under the rule of collaborators and criminals.”
But as the humanitarian crisis deepens and international actors fail to act decisively, many fear more such entities could emerge, further fragmenting Gaza’s already shattered landscape.
